Re: Fwd: If you haven't heard...

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyross.com>]

On 31 Jul 2002 at 1:27, Sean Smyth wrote:

> Didn't John Kerry have to resign from the lieutenant governorship when he
> ran for the Senate? Was a replacement ever appointed and, if somehow
> Dukakis became incapacitated, who would have run the state if there was
> not a lieutenant governor?

John Kerry did resign as lieutenant governor, not when he ran for Senate, but after he was 
elected.  The office was vacant for the next two years.  The next in succession is the 
Secretary of State, then the Attorney General, the Treasurer, and the Auditor, all of whom 
are elected statewide.

This came up in a big way last year when Jane Swift gave birth and took some maternity 
leave.  Since the Secretary of State is a Democrat and, at that time, was planning to run for 
governor himself, she didn't want to give him the chance to be acting governor, so she ran 
things from her hospital room and then from her family home in the Berkshires.  She even 
presided at an Executive Council meeting with a speakerphone device.

Back in the late 1960s, when Governor John A. Volpe resigned to take a position in Nixon's 
cabinet, lieutenant governor Francis W. Sargent was considered acting governor on all official 
papers, but was called "Governor" by the media.  However, during that time, I took an exam 
for an internship in state government, and one of the questions was "Who is the lieutenant 
governor of Massachusetts?"  It was a multiple-choice question, and the correct answer was 
"The lieutenant governor is Francis W. Sargent, who is also serving as Acting Governor of 
the Commonwealth."

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@attorneyross.com
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         http://www.attorneyross.com